Night Flying – Yes, or No?

Do you fly at night? – Many pilots avoid it for understandable reasons. But should you? Is Single Engine Airplane Night Flying something we should be doing?

Flying at night is definitely much different than flying during the day in so many ways. It is much harder to navigate visually because most identifiable landmarks disappear. Because of that, reliance on instruments is much more important for even simple maneuvering. Potential emergency situations can be compounded and made more terrifying at night. The possibility of an engine failure and emergency off-airport landing when you can’t see the ground has caused many pilots to decide to never fly at night, period. These are very real concerns to be aware of.

At the same time, there can be so many joys of flying at night! The air is usually much calmer, and if it is summer time, it is much cooler as well. There is typically less traffic at night, yet in many ways traffic can actually be easier to spot than during the day. Plus you get to see the world from a perspective most people simply do not get to enjoy. Flying at night really is a beautiful experience.

Because there are so many factors to discuss we are going to break the subject of night flying up into multiple sections. Keep an eye out for upcoming editions to this article as we discuss tips and suggestions for important night flying factors such as, weather, communication, inspections, maneuvering, and the ever-polarizing subject – emergencies.

But in case you are wondering; I AM an advocate of night flying, I enjoy it, and done under the right conditions with the proper training, night flying can be just as safe, and often even MORE enjoyable than flying during the day!

Stay with us for more posts like this. I will be posting again about some more helpful tips that will help you save money while you fly!